Page 69
Something in his face shifted at that, softened despite himself, and his thumb moved once, absently, over the back of her hand. “I have missed that man myself, lately.”
“Then let us finish this, and have him back.”
He was quiet a moment, looking down at their joined hands as though he had only just noticed they were joined. “The ball is soon. After that, whatever happens, it will be over, one way or another.”
Gregory was still thinking over what his wife had told him when Ronan found him.
“I hope trouble in paradise has resolved,” he teased but Greogory was in no mood for banter.
“Quite the opposite, if anything,” he said. “There’s more trouble. She invited him to the ball.”
“Invited who?”
“Micheal Dornet. She met him at the orphanage, and made the decision on her own.”
His friend let out a long breath. “You think its a bad idea?”
“She is either the bravest woman I have ever known, or the most reckless. I confess I have not yet decided which. Still, I have told her to keep her distance from him at the ball, and informed Mrs. Glenn that Theodore is not to leave the nursery floor the entire night.”
“But clearly you’re still worried,” Ronan observed.
“How could I not be?” he sparred back. “It’s hard enough that he gets to walk out freely in London, and now he’s going to be at my place of residence where Theodore and my wife reside.”
The two people that he cares most about.
Ronan studied him for a long moment, and when he spoke again his voice had lost its teasing edge entirely.
“I think it’s not a bad idea,” he said in a neutral tone. “I hope you didn’t give her too much grief for it. I know that you can get carried away when you’re upset.”
Gregory shot him a look. “I tried to be as gentle with her as possible, but make no mistake that this is a dangerous situation. I want to be prepared for it. She was suggesting that he might not have a bad motive.”
Ronan snorted at that.
“It’s because she sees the good in everyone,” Gregory admitted.
He hadn’t met too many people like his wife in his lifetime. She had a heart of that could see the silver lining in anyone…. Or anything.
“That where your discernment comes in, I suppose,” Ronan mused. “You know how women can be, they’re soft hearted. But you need to protect her from the bad in the world.”
“I have every intention to,” the words came to him easily. “I don’t want her to learn the difficult lesson that you can’t trust everyone in this world.”
Ronan observed his friend for a long moment.
“You really do love her,” he said simply and to that, Gregory had no defense prepared.
“I would rather not tell her that.”
“In time,” Ronan said. “You have enough on your plate already. What are you planning to do… with this whole situation?”
“I have a meeting with Mr. Pell this afternoon. In fact, I should be leaving for it shortly,” Gregory announced. “I will discuss this matter with him, and take whatever precaution that is necessary.”
“You ought to,” Ronan said. “I’m here to support to with whatever you need.”
When Gregory took his leave, it was not long after that he met with Mr. Pell.
“You are certain he will come?” was the first question that he asked him.
“I am as certain as any man can be of another man’s behavior, Your Grace,” he replied. “He surfaced because Her Grace, without meaning to, offered him precisely the thing he has wanted since he first heard a rumor that his old sweetheart had died leaving a son behind her. He wants to see the boy, whether he means to simply look, or to do something more foolish than looking, I cannot tell you with certainty, but I will tell you this much freely: a desperate man who has been handed an invitation he has spent a long time hoping for does not generally decline it out of good sense.”
